


A Touch of Magic

by DreamingMoonlight



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Future Fic, Humor, Kid Fic, M/M, The family that trolls together stays together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 15:39:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2512940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamingMoonlight/pseuds/DreamingMoonlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Thor and Loki's son comes into possession of a magical scroll to connect the minds, he may well regret showing it to his nanna.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Touch of Magic

"Nanna! Nanna!" cried Asvaldr as he careened around the corner of Loki's study, everything about him as loud and as fast as he could make himself go. He was not yet of a height with either of his parents' hip yet, but he was already of sturdy build, his burnt gold hair and warmly colored skin making him a smaller, slightly darker version of his father. In these moments, Loki's breath nearly caught in his throat, so powerful was the memory of when Thor himself had come tearing around a corner to look for his little brother, so that they might find mischief together when they were perhaps even younger than Asvaldr's age.

"Nanna!! Nannaaaaaa!!" the little boy shouted and waved his still pudgy little arms so that Loki blinked the memories away.

"I am right in front of you, little Alsvidr," he said fondly and cupped the little boy's cheeks to show he was not serious in his reprimand. Asvaldr barely even seemed to notice, he was nearly vibrating in place with whatever excitment he'd managed to dig up now. "What is it that had you barreling through the halls as if Skoll himself was on your tail?"

Only then did Loki see the rolled up parchment that Asvaldr had held halfway behind his back, the dust still clinging to it and the edges yellowed with age. There was a simple ribbon tied around it, but as soon as Loki laid eyes on it, he felt the burst of power of the Allfather's seal. And when Asvaldr held it up in front of Loki, he could then clearly see the runes written across the black ribbon, despite the way it was now being waved excitedly back and forth. Loki's magesight lit them up well enough that he could tell it was a sorcerer's text from Odin's library, one on magics of the mind, and he'd wondered just how far Asvaldr had had to crawl to find this little treasure.

"Look what I have!" Asvaldr still shouted and thrust the parchment into Loki's face, forcing him a little cross-eyed at the glowing symbol now right between his eyes. "Nanna, help me open it! I want to know what's inside!"

Careful not to damage the delicate scroll, Loki took it from the small fist that had threatened to crumple it, and turned it so that they could both see the writing along the ribbon. "Can you see the runes along the ribbon here, my darling?"

Asvaldr wasted no time in climbing into Loki's lap, grabbing little fistfuls of the soft tunic his nanna wore to haul himself up and plop down in the waiting lap. He had grown heavier so quickly, Loki thought, it hardly been a century since he'd seemed feather light when balanced against one hip or carried underneath one arm or set upon a shoulder. Soon enough, he would be too large even for this, no matter that he was still just a child barely able to begin parsing the magics that welled under his little fingers.

Now he peered closely at the ribbon held in his nanna's hand, his little face nearly pressed up against the parchment to get as close as possible. "Ummm. I think so?" His little face scrunched as he looked up at Loki, hopeful that this would not turn into another lesson if he played along as if he already understood it. Certainly though he may have had Loki's magic and his love for it, but he was entirely his father's child in his reluctance to _learn_ anything.

Loki gently pinched one of his cheeks and gave his son a sly smile. "If you can see them, then you should be able to read them. What do they say?"

Asvaldr's little face was yet further scrunched up as he thought carefully and turned to study the scroll in front of him. "Mmmmm." If it had not been so darling, to see him so focused on it, trying to either read the words or think of a way out of it, Loki might have taken pity on him. "Oh! They're too smudged for me to read properly!" It was as if the sun had peeked out from between the clouds, only a little tongue tucked into the corner of a little mouth giving away how terribly clever Asvaldr thought himself.

"Ah, that was a very good try," Loki said and stood up with the child still in his arms, not minding that Asvaldr was also adjusting his grip to grab hold of the simple braid at Loki's back to steady himself. "But you forget that I _can_ see them, so I know if they're too smudged or not."

Asvaldr made disgusted noise and himself and swore, "Ymir's shrivelled balls!" He twitched hard in Loki's arms, like he wished to pitch himself straight down to the floor and possibly flee out the door if he could. "Nanna, I'm sorryyyy, don't make me do lessons _again_ \--!"

Loki did not dare let him go, knowing that that is exactly what would happen if he put Asvaldr down, but it also meant that he had no free hand to cover the burst of laughter at the child's choice of swearing. "Do not let your father hear you say such a thing, for he would redden your backside until you made sure never to repeat it!"

With a sly look out of the corner of his eye, Asvaldr wriggled back around in Loki's grip. "But, Nanna, you say it all the time when you're mad or surprised...."

Loki laughed again, setting him down at the wide table in his personal study, kissing the crown of the dark gold mop of hair. "Yes, but I am an adult, so I have earned the right to say what I wish whenever I wish. You, my darling," and his fingers sneaked under Asvaldr's arms to lightly tickle him, earning a sweet, high giggle, "have not yet grown that far. And I did not say you could not say it, only that you should not let your father hear you do so, if you would like to sit comfortably at dinner that evening."

Seeming satisfied with that, Asvaldr turned back to the scroll Loki placed in front of him, with only a mildly put-upon sigh to express his displeasure. "But you will at least help me open it, right, Nanna?"

Loki pulled a second chair up to the great table and smoothed away enough space for them to work. "Of course, my darling. Now, wherever you have sneaked this parchment off from, it is clearly quite old and--"

"I didn't sneak off with it!"

Loki blinked at the interruption, Asvaldr's mouth pulled down in a terrible pout that he had not yet learned to affect with perfection. "I do not mind that you would sneak off with it, Asvaldr, so you need not hide from me how you acquired it."

Little fists curled at his sides, not angry but frightfully stubborn and Loki found himself blinking away memories of Thor at this age once again. "I did not sneak off with it! Grandfather gave it to me!"

Tilting his head at the image of Odin Allfather giving such an old scroll to one who was just using magic, Loki thought it seemed... odd and instantly every uncharitable, suspicious thought about his father came rushing back to him. "Why would he give you this?"

"We were in the library together and he was telling me about some of the really old magic stuff, the spells that hardly anyone used anymore, like how to talk to each other over great distances and such, when he saw this one and started laughing!" Loki turned the scroll over in his hand again, wondering what could amuse his father so greatly about an old, but likely very simple spell parchment.

Asvaldr wriggled around until he was up on his knees so he was nearly of a height with his nanna, his arm thrown over the high back of the chair for support as he leaned forward to peer at the scroll in Loki's hands again. "He laughed and said that it was one you had found as a boy and had tried it out on father several times! Then he looked at it for a minute and then he gave it to me and said I should show you!"

Suddenly, Loki remembered the scroll in his hands, the one he'd found when he was a little older than Asvaldr was now, after digging around in their father's library when he had not been directly permitted there. He'd spent hours in the dusty, creaking rooms and felt like he could nearly touch the history of all these magics and secret stories, grabbing them at random because he'd had no idea where to even _start_. The only one he'd taken with him was this simple spelled parchment, one that he'd been sure he could undo the bindings of and then redo them afterwards, so that none would ever know it had ever been missing.

Oh, he'd spent _hours_ carefully studying the runes written in magic on the ribbon, then gently tugging at them until he could open it and read the paper inside, so excited to learn a bit of true _grown up_ magic. It hadn't been a difficult spell, a simple working of two minds connecting to each other, so that thoughts and feelings and memories could be shared, and Loki had been nearly excited beyond the telling of it to try it with Thor. He'd had such grand plans of being able to simply _show_ his older brother the things he could not yet explain, the illusions that came to him by instinct, to perhaps see into Thor's mind and understand how he came so easily to the physical skills he had.

Yet, no matter how hard they had tried, they simply had not been able to do it. After perhaps no more than three afternoons, Thor had grown bored with trying it, only ever interested in magic for Loki's sake, and even that had only stretched as far as Loki's own interest in wielding a sword or playing in the mud had gone.

It was only now that he was an adult, having so much more knowledge and understanding at his fingertips, did he realize that Thor had simply not had enough of the right kind of magic then for the connection between two minds to take hold. Of course it had not worked, for Thor had not known how to grab hold of the rope Loki had cast towards him again and again, because a simple connection spell did not have the power to force it on one who did not reach for it.

But then Asvaldr's small face--his face so very much like Thor's at the time, still rounded with baby fat and his eyes not much darker than his father's--was intently staring at him and Loki suddenly realized exactly why the Allfather had laughed. That wily old bastard, who thought it would be funny to toss such a thing to Loki's child, simply for the reminded amusement of his own past self's raging frustration at failure, as well as his current self dealing with a young child who wished to get his sticky little fingers into every magical pie he could find.

For Asvaldr may have been Thor's son, but he was also Loki's, and certainly had more than enough magic to complete a connection of the minds.

"Ah," Loki said, after a time, unwilling to back down from so obvious a challenge that the Allfather had lain down before him, "then I apologize for doubting you, my darling." He glanced at the cooling righteousness on Asvaldr's face and smiled sly again. "Though, perhaps instead I should be more disappointed that you did _not_ sneak off with it. How boring you would be if you only ever did the right thing!"

Asvaldr giggled and Loki was heartened for it. It was not that he wished to have his son sneaking behind his back or taking lying as a way of life to heart, for he knew all too well the suffering that lay down that path, but he would have _something_ of himself in this darling child, and a penchent for mischief was something all children should have. "I did sneak an extra sweet roll after dinner last night," he confessed to his nanna, clearly pleased to have someone to confess it to.

Loki reached out to tickle him again, even lighter this time so that a single peal of childish laughter rang out before they settled again. "Next time you will have to take two and share it with me, all right? Sneaking a few things is good, but only if your co-conspirators do not have reason to tell on you."

Nodding seriously, Asvaldr crawled over the seats and into his nanna's lap, his fingers twisting into the tail at the end of Loki's long braid. "You can have mine next time if you want, Nanna."

Loki readjusted the child on his lap and felt as if he might burst from pure affection, his grip on Asvaldr as unbreakable as his love was unwavering. "That is very sweet of you, little one. Though, perhaps we can instead split the extra instead. But for now, let us try to understand this spell, shall we? I promise to try to make it interesting for you." Asvaldr nodded and leaned back against Loki, accepting the dreaded lesson with grace.

*

The most difficult part of the spell was keeping his own far more complex mind from overwhelming Asvaldr's still developing one, for no child could handle the scope of an adult's experiences and depth of thought. But the connection was made, the surface thoughts easily shared and Asvaldr's pure, sweet _joy_ at a new magic trick learned was worth the effort alone. He nearly shot out of Loki's arms to run out of the room, ducking around a corner, with the thought that he wished to be out of sight to see if it still worked. Loki had laughed, letting the warm amusement drift over from his mind, so that Asvaldr could share in it as well, and enjoyed the bubbling delight that was sent back.

_Do not wander too far, my darling,_ Loki thought at him, not expecting a reply, for Asvaldr could not focus well enough yet to send more than the basics of feelings and the thought of whatever was directly in front of him. _You are distracted and it would not do to have you careening into some place you should not be._

There was a general sense of an affirmative answer and then it was lost in the chaos of a little mind excited with a new toy. Loki let the feeling wash over him, the way Asvaldr sent him the most inane of details, still holding wonder to a child. The crawl of a little ant across the massive hallways clearly so far from wherever its home was or the feel of using a bronze statue to climb up high enough so that he could see across the balconies into one of the occupied war rooms or stomping through one of the fountains in the courtyard to splash water high enough that it soaked his entire outfit, all of these things still held such joy for Asvaldr.

Each time, Loki would send back a touch of warm and affection, caught up in it so completely that he did not notice Thor's arrival until there were strong hands against his sides, pulling him back into Thor's embrace. He was so startled by it, that he could not help the jolt of surprise that traveled through him and onto Asvaldr, who stopped in the middle of swinging one of the practice swords that he was not yet supposed to have and thinking of how he wished to be as great a warrior as both his parents. The notion had warmed Loki further, that Asvaldr did not find them incompatible, that he gave no thought to how to balance them, only that he had not yet decided precisely _which_ elements he would put together, for they all fit naturally with each other in his young mind.

"You seem far away, Loki," Thor said against the side of his neck, lips warm and welcome against Loki's cool skin. The evening was still warm in Asgard and the breeze from the open window kept it from being unbearable, fluttering the loose sheets of paper on his desk faintly. He'd been standing there, gazing off into the distance most likely, for nearly an hour before Thor had found him and slid his arms around Loki.

As soon as Asvaldr had picked up what was happening, his mind was a whirlwind of childish outrage and disgust, Loki able to feel the way he screwed up his face as if he'd been sucking on the bitter sweets the bakers used in the kitchens again. _NOOOO!_ Loki could quite clearly feel him think now. _GROOOOOSSS!_

Loki bit his lip to try to tamp down on the amusement, but he could not stop the way it still filtered through to Asvaldr, who howled in outrage and took off at a dead run across the palace courtyards, determined to reach his parents and break them apart. His little feet pounded across the sun-warmed tiles and skidded along the shining floors of Odin's tower, still several long moments away and Loki could not resist.

It was terrible of him, he knew. Especially when Asvaldr had been very sweet today and Loki was gladdened to share this of magic with their child, but he also could not deny that he was still a maker of mischief. With another gentle touch of affection to Asvaldr's mind, like a soft kiss to his forehead or a warm rub on his little back, Loki turned to Thor and wrapped his arms around his husband. "Perhaps I have been far away today, though, there is nothing amiss. Still, I would not be averse to being brought back, should you feel it necessary."

"Perhaps not truly necessary," Thor said and leaned in to kiss him, hands sliding down the length of Loki's back with clear intent, "but certainly wished for."

The moment their lips met again, Loki let himself feel every ridiculous sentiment and burst of affection for Thor, just as little Asvaldr tore around the corner. The connection between their minds was instantly dropped, as if it had scalded at the very touch of it, only a brief burst of all-consuming disgust coming across at the end, as all children who see their parents kissing experience.

" _Ymir's shrivelled balls!_ " Asvaldr shrieked at the sight of his father and his nanna wrapped in a passionate embrace.

It did not matter that Loki knew Thor would be annoyed with him for it later. Or that Thor pulled away from him with a hard frown to their child, ready to swat him on the backside for the swearing Asvaldr knew better than to say or that he would receive a stern lecture about it once more. Not even that Loki knew it was not entirely Asvaldr's fault for having been rather goaded into it.

He still could not hold back a burst of laughter or the warm affection for the child that was clearly his.

**Author's Note:**

> Alsvidr is the name of one of the horses that pulls Sol's chariot across the sky, which is close to the name Asvaldr, so it's a double play on words from Loki.


End file.
